A typical home network today is computer-centered and emphasizes sharing printers and Internet access within a home. While functional, it is of limited interest to the typical consumer. Consumers now also demand that multimedia (audio and video) services be provided through home networking. For example, consumers would like to have the ability to watch cable or satellite TV on any TV-set in the home, to watch video downloaded from the Internet on any TV-set, or to listen to music in any part of the house.
With this aim, several home network architectures have been developed. One example for such home network architecture is based on an internal digital network interconnecting devices in the home. The home network provides connectivity of different types of devices within the home and outside the home. The devices may include analog TV-sets, digital TV-sets, DVRs, VCRs, digital camcorders, personal computers, audio equipment, and so on. The connectivity of the devices is achieved using network interfaces. Multimedia services are introduced into the network through one or more network interface units that are coupled to an external network and to the internal network. An example for such home network architecture may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,861 to Humpleman.
The drawback of such home networks is that they are not designed to support delivery of high-speed uncompressed multimedia data (e.g., high definition video) over a link connecting a source device (e.g., a network interface) and a sink device (e.g., a digital TV set). Specifically, existing home network solutions are not designed to support uncompressed video that is compliant, for example, with the high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) or DisplayPort standards. Furthermore, currently many different services can be provided by home networks. These services include delivery of uncompressed video, Ethernet, universal serial bus (USB) connectivity, and so on.
In existing home networks, there is no capability to concurrently provide two or more of these services over a single link. In order to support concurrent high-speed traffic services a fast switching of data streams of different services is mandatory. This requires a switch connected in the home network to multiplex streams of data from different sources on the same link and then separating the streams to be sent to the different destination(s). Implementing such a switch is almost infeasible.
In addition, it is quite often desired by the typical customer to be able to capture the signals from a source device in several destination devices, e.g., being able to connect a VCR to TV-sets in different rooms in the home. It is also desired to be able to place or move these devices anywhere in the home without needing to extend or re-install the connecting cables. A wireless network may achieve these desires. However, such networks are costly and suffer from limited distance between a transmitting device and receiving device. In addition, only point-to-point connections can be achieved.
Another requirement when developing a home network to support delivery of high-speed multimedia services is to provide compatibility with existing multimedia interface standards. Such standards include, but are not limited to, High-Definition multimedia interface (HDMI), DisplayPort, USB3, DiiVA, and the like. The standards typically define the connectors and cables utilized to connect a source device (e.g., a DVD player) to a sink device (e.g., a TV set).
As most newly developed consumer electronic products are already equipped with high-speed multimedia interfaces, it would be highly advantageous if a multimedia home network would enable interoperability between high-speed multimedia interfaces and solutions for delivering high-speed data services over a home network.